Adam Lindemann returns to print with some weary words on the challenges of getting collectors to focus on under-appreciated artists. Even taste-making collectors can feel outgunned by a “name brand” gallery:
In this money frenzy, new art drowns out the old. At the gallery (Venus Over Manhattan) we’ve shown Walter Dahn, William Copley and the great Jack Goldstein in an attempt to focus some well-deserved attention on overlooked or under-esteemed artists, but the market doesn’t appreciate piss in the wind, it would rather see more Shiraga or other flavors du jour.
Take Karel Appel; is he timely today? Perhaps he is, but no one seems to care. Peter Saul is another overlooked mad genius who is ripe for some reconsideration, but when there are so many new artists to compete with and plenty of gamblers eager to bet on them, who has time to look back? This market wants to go onward and upward, and it probably will. […]
What’s particularly funny is that today art is expensive, but people don’t seem to be fazed in the least. It’s the classic stampede. Nobody wants it when its cheap, but when it’s wildly expensive they love it and can’t get enough of it.
Why I’m Worried About the Art World: Adam Lindemann on the Sizzle vs. the Steak (New York Observer)